


Worth The Effort

by MildlyConfusedTree



Category: Bleach
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-09
Updated: 2013-08-09
Packaged: 2017-12-22 22:13:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/918638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MildlyConfusedTree/pseuds/MildlyConfusedTree
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With how much Ichigo's helped Soul Society, he had hoped they'd return the favor by returning his sister... But all he's able to do for Karin is wish her well on her trip to the afterlife. Implied Toshiro/Karin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Worth The Effort

**Author's Note:**

> Idek where or when this is set to be honest. AU, I guess.
> 
> Hello to Jasmine, too, who after a discussion that unexpectedly lead into Bleach, asked that I write a fic about a silly little idea. Of course, it's hard to make someones death amusing, so this is a little more dramatic and stupid than you have hoped.
> 
> I haven't watched Bleach in a while either so I don't know what's happened lately. Just roll with it. You have been warned.

Ichigo couldn't ignore the veracity of the situation. He was a shinigami so he could see soul's like he was looking through a one-sided mirror, on the good side. He saw souls everyday, helped every soul that needed help (even the ones that didn't admit it). He was brave, he was strong, he was heroic and he was a family man. In fact, his family was his greatest assest, the very thing that kept him sane throughout all the madness Soul Society had dumped on him. His assest has became his downfall. He couldn't ignore her solid body accompanied by a transperant glow of her soul standing right above it. He hated how he could see her soul. It belonged in her body, it should've been in her body for decades that wouldn't come. Hitsugaya was laying next to her lifeless body, except he was able to wake up and breath again. His sister, however, would never be able to do that ever again. His sister, who rarely ever cried, was given more than enough reasons to break down right then and there yet she didn't. She looked broken, Karin did, as she stared at the proof of her death. She had gone as pale as her soul-form would allow her to go and her eyes had gone glassy but she didn't cry. 

Ichigo may be strong in the family, but Karin would always be more emotionally stronger, and she was proving it right there. Ichigo had no doubt in his mind that if he wasn't there she'd be a crying mess on the floor. To lessen the burden on his heart and keep him looking forward to attend to the biggest matter at hands (For everyone elses world- but Ichigo had just lost a fraction of his world and people could only stare.) and face Soul Society's enemy. For once, Ichigo wanted them to fight their own battle. He wanted to sit out this time, mourn the death of his sister, the death influenced by his involvement with a world he could've avoided if he didn't have such a big hero syndrome.

Kurosaki Karin was dead. Yuzu had not only lost a mother she didn't get the chance to know, but she had just lost her twin sister. Her best friend. And it was all because of her favorite guy in the world- Isshin had just lost another fundamental woman in his life.  _And it was because of me. Again._ Ichigo felt the tears begin the come and he didn't try to stop them at all.  _Dead. Karin's dead. She's a soul, she's--_ Ichigo covered his eyes with his hands and let out a loud sob.

"Ichi-nii," Karin's soft and fragile voice stop his loud sobbing. Her voice had cracked and Ichigo could tell she was afraid. She had a lot of her life to live through and it was ended so abruptly. "Please, don't cry, Ichi-nii." Her voice had began to tremble itself. Ichigo wiped his tears with the back of his hands and looked up at Karin, she was staring straight at him with Matsumoto's hand on her shoulder. 

The orange haired woman had been silent ever since her loud scream at the sight of Karin's chest being blasted open. In fact, Matsumoto's eyes still hadn't left Karin's solid body, eyes lingering wide-eyed on the giant hole. It resembled a hollow hole, only much more terrifying for it belonged to a human, and it wasn't an empty void. Matsumoto wished it was, so she could finally tear her eyes away from it. Karin started shaking her head, " _Please,_ don't cry." Karin's own tears started to fall and she wiped them away before they could get very far on her cheeks. "There's nothing you can do." She tried to reason though her voice held no confidence in her words. She knew how Ichigo took deaths, even deaths of strangers, he wouldn't let this one go.

Ichigo shook his head so much it could've fallen off. "I-I could've come quicker! I  _knew_ you were in danger and I could've s-stopped this from happening! So don't tell me there's nothing I could've done, because there were 1000 options!" Ichigo choked out. "What makes this situation even more unbelievable is the fact that I can't avenge you because Toshiro's already done it!"

Karin stepped forward and gently nudged him, "Did you feel that?" she asked with a straight face. Ichigo nodded meekly. Karin nodded along with him. "Yeah, thats me. I may not be solid to everyone, but you can talk to me. You can touch me. I'm here, Ichi-nii. I just wont  _always_ be there." Karin recoiled her shaking hand. She shouldn't be comforting him, she was the one who died. "It's kind of... Like avoiding everyone I don't like, except they don't get the choice on whether or not they want to see me."

Ichigo frowned. "But, Yuzu--" Ichigo stopped as soon as Karin's breathing had hitched in her throat. She thought about Yuzu on her last breath. She knew she was going to be a Soul, one with a hell of a lot of Spiritual Power, so Yuzu was her primary worry. The only Kurosaki who couldn't see souls was going to have a harder time coping with her death than Ichigo or Isshin would. Ichigo continued wearily, "Karin, even if me and Dad can see you, Yuzu  _won't._ "

"I know that, Ichi-nii! Of course I know that my other half wont be able to see me, hear me or feel me anymore. I know." Karin said irritated, temper following her to the grave. "The leasts we can do for her is stop those damn monsters from ruining our lives even more, because she doesn't need to do that. She's gone through enough hell in a world she can't even see, so the  _least_ you can do for the both of us, Ichi-nii, is to find the mastermind behind everything and  _stop them_." Karin ended up going through a rant. She needed to express her misery through something and yelling seemed to be the right thing to do.

Matsumoto pulled out her phone and started texting Yamamoto. She didn't want to interrupt but Ichigo and Karin needed to know, "I've just informed the Captain-Commander of the casualities, Ichigo. It'll be safer for her, as a soul, to return to the Soul Society." Matsumoto said in a soothing kind of voice, like a mother trying to ease a child into doing something they didn't like. It was one of those rare moments when she acted like a lieutenant.

Karin started to nod at the same time Ichigo shouted: "Of course not!"

"Ichi-nii!"

Ichigo shook his head. "No, you can't leave. Who knows when I'll see you next?" He looked at his hands. "...You can't leave, Karin. Not so soon." He sighed heavily after admitting to it.

Karin put her hands on Ichigo's shoulder, "Ichi-nii, it'll be safer for me to go to the Soul Society now. I've been given a second chance, I'll be seriously risking that chance by staying here. Where the danger is. I promise that as soon as I've been given permission, I'll come back and I'll stay as long as I can- No, I'll stay as long as  _you_ want. But for now, you've gotta let me go."

"No." Ichigo all but growled. "The Gotei 13 are good people, yeah, but I don't trust them with someone so precious, Karin. You're too valuable to me to just assume they'll let you be a normal soul. You're safer here than there!" Matsumoto narrowed her eyes but didn't say anything. He was anxious, he didn't want to lose Karin, and he'd say anything to get her on the same page.

On the contrary, Karin was on an entirely different book. "Ichi-nii, just let me leave! Please. I'll be safe, I promi-" Karin tried pleading, but Ichigo shook his head and opened his mouth to deny her once more but there was a shifting from someone who shouldn't be moving that caught everyones attention.

Matsumoto's eyes brightened a little, "Captain! You're awake!" She went to his side and helped her little captain sit up. Toshiro rested his hand on his ribs and shifted around wtih a few hisses here and there to signify his pain. Karin looked at him with obvious concern, but Toshiro was staring at her solid body with a terrified face. At that point, his face was whiter than his hair. He knew it would be bad but that... He was not expecting such a gaping hole.

He tore his eyes aware and locked eyes with Ichigo, "I'll look after her, Kurosaki." was the first thing that came out of his mouth. Karin gaped at him and gulped. How was he awake after the beating he went through to keep her alive (only to fail nonetheless). "You can trust me." Karin certainly could. He nearly risked it all to save her from death, to keep her from having to abandon her family. Although it was beyond him how Karin was still there, without a chain, Toshiro had learned to accept that the Kurosaki family exceeded expectations.

_"Humans are a special type of life form. I was human once- every soul was at one point. That's why I can't let you die, Kurosaki. Not only because it's my duty as the Captain of Division 10, but because you are worth saving."_

_  
_Karin wanted to thank him. Even though he didn't succeed in stopping her death, he fought valiantly in her place and that was an act that gained every bit of her respect and loyalty. It was always the thought that counted for Karin, actions speaking louder than words. He was beyond trust worthy and if Ichigo didn't trust him to escort her to Soul Society, Karin was going to go without his permission.

Toshiro was worth that. Besides, Ichigo would understand. Karin didn't listen to him much anyway.

Ichigo looked at Toshiro with this stern kind of look as if examining him, and Karin starting to feel tired. Matsumoto let out a frustrated cry, "Okay, Ichigo, me and you are going to go out on the battlefield, alright? Captain, you're going to take Karin-chan back to Soul Society- there is a _war_  happening and no offence, but there is really no time to stare each other down. Ichigo, say goodbye because we need to seriously leave." Matsumoto didn't want to break the moment up but there were people dying elsewhere, and they needed to prevent more deaths.

Ichigo originally wanted to burn Matsumoto with a glare but he didn't. Instead, he looked between the battered and half-awake Toshiro who was willing to force himself awake to simply escort his little sister safely back to Soul Society. There was something he was missing between them, something big. Karin was leaning toward Toshiro, quite suspiciously enough, and Ichigo decided then that she was going to be in safe hands. "Visit. All the time, whenever you can, Karin, you have to visit."

Karin nodded and smiled, "I will, Ichi-nii."

Ichigo gave a stern nod before he coughed into his hand. "Are you sure you can't... Uh, put a soul back into its human body?" Ichigo asked, now speaking directly to Toshiro. However, the short captain shook his head.

"If that was possible, no one would be dead. Everyone would want to stay alive. Its against nature." Toshiro explained weakly. Everything that they done was against nature and with a captain like Kurotsuchi, Ichigo was in no doubt that the experiment hadn't popped up every millenium or something.

Ichigo reluctantly nodded before he brought Karin into a tight hug, "I'm so sorry." He whispered. Karin shrugged and allowed some tears to slip pass her guard.

"There was nothing you could've done," She repeated to him once more. "Look after Yuzu, especially, Ichi-nii." She said sternly. Ichigo nodded, he was going to do it anyway. With a nod to Toshiro and Matsumoto, they flash stepped to their required destination. Toshiro looked at Karin, who directed her gaze to the floor and tried to wipe away the tears that wouldn't stop falling. She only meant for a few to fall but it was never ending now.

Toshiro extended an elbow, like a gentleman, and Karin halted in her crying enough to look at it skeptically. Against his sign, she threw his arm around her shoulder to help him keep his balance. She was taller than him as a teenager now, but only by a bit. The little elementary captain had grown (Although not by much she had to admit). "What are you doing, Kurosaki?"

Karin rolled her eyes. "Returning the favor." She replied in a patronizing tone. "So... How do we get to this, whats it called, Soul Society?" Toshiro rolled his eyes and held his zanpakutou in mid-air, twisting it like a key in a lock, which opened shōji on the spot, which homed a blinding bright white light. Karin nodded in approval- it seemed flashy enough for "heaven".

 Toshiro glanced at her as they walked into it, "You  _can_ cry, Kurosaki. You don't have Ichigo to reassure anymore... You did just die." He said it like it was his fault, so Karin squeezed his bleeding arm and smirked through the tears when he loudly cried out in pain. "WHAT THE HELL, KUROSAKI?!"

"I'm not going to mourn my own death until I'm alon-" Her strong statement was cut off by her own tears. Traitors. She groaned in exasperation and tried to wipe them with one hand, "Look at me, a high schooler, crying in front of a elementary school stude-"

Toshiro's eye twitched and he removed his arm from her shoulder, "I TOLD YOU! I AM NOT IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL!" He fumed before wincing in pain. Karin flicked his forehead and scolded him. "I wouldn't have to worry about my injuries if you didn't patronize me so much, you're a soul now, you should start learning resp-" He stopped his little rant after he noticed her face drop. She didn't want to become a soul (then again, who did?) so reminding her wasn't a bright idea. Toshiro huffed, he couldn't believe he was doing this.

"...I'm at least the height of a high schooler now." He watched as her eyes lit up the tiniest bit at his comment and as he flinched from her rough handling, he knew that the injuries and risks were worth it.

 


End file.
